How are Kane’s identity, business decisions, and personal choices shaped through his

experiences during his life? How does his lack of understanding of himself affect his ability
to understand others?

Throughout Charles Foster Kane’s life, he remains unaware of how affected he is by his past.
Kane’s actions and decisions are ones based on past events as he acts in ways to make feel
himself loved, reminding himself of the life he had before Mr. Thatcher.

The only time when Kane was happy with life was before his family discovered the gold mine –
before his mother sent him to live with Walter Thatcher. It was a time when he felt loved. The
calm he feels when he sees a snow globe that resembles his childhood emphasizes the impact his
youth still has. Kane’s nostalgia for his past, especially Rosebud – his sled, makes continuing
appearances throughout Kane’s adult life. Repeatedly, Bernstein argues that Kane does what he
does so he feels loved, hinting that Kane’s actions are done so that he can find the happiness and
love he felt when he was young. Kane runs for office not necessarily because he wants to be
politician. Rather, he does so in order to reassure himself that the general voting public loves
him. When his second wife was leaving him, she argued that all Kane ever wanted was for her to
have undying love for him even though he would never return the feeling.

Kane’s decision to build an opera house was not one based on satisfying his wife (who
repeatedly said that she had no desire to have a career in singing.) He built the theater, however,
to prove to the newspapers that called Susan a “singer” that his wife/mistress was indeed a
singer. Kane’s personal desire to validate and legitimize Susan’s profession as a singer spurred
him to create an entire opera house.

While it had become obvious to Mr. Bernstein that Kane’s actions were for himself and not for
Susan, Kane remains unaware (or at least not entirely cognizant) of his motives. He pushes
Susan to pursue a career that she does not enjoy, forcing her to endure the judgment and
negativity of critics. Kane continues to make decisions, blinded by his own motives to realize the
harm he is causing Susan, and ultimately drives her towards suicide. Whether or not Kane
actually realized the impact his pushing had on his wife, he continued because his own personal
desire had more eminence.